Outdoors Briefs

Forward facing sonar continues domination on pro tournament trails

Outdoors Writer

The most recent flurry includes big league events hosted by the Bassmaster Elite Series, Major League Fishing Bass Pro Tour and MLF Tackle Warehouse Invitational. A couple were held on Texas waters.

On Toledo Bend, California bass pro Kyoto Fujita won the four-day Bassmaster Elite Series event with 100 pounds, 13 ounces on 20 bass — a five pound average. The second-year Elite Pro spent the entire tournament fishing far from shore using spinning gear and Garmin LiveScope to guide his baits to big fish he saw suspended in the water column in real time.

Fujita’s Skeeter Boat would make a good promotional billboard for modern electronics. The rig features six visible units — three at the console and three at the bow, including a 22 inch NBT Marine Battleship Unit. Factoring in the additional transducers and battery power to run them, set-ups like his cost thousands of dollars.

I not sure how many of the Top 10 finishers were scoping, but several of them were.

Three other anglers cracked 90 pounds. Ben Milliken of New Caney was the highest finishing Texan. He finished fifth with 89-11.

Fujita’s win on T-Bend earned him a century belt cracking 100 pounds, a blue trophy for winning and $103,000 check. The 28-year-old angler has banked $380,426 in 17 Elite Series tournaments — roughly $22,700 percent per event.

The Elites are on Lake Fork this week — Feb. 29 to March 3 — before heading to Santee Cooper Lakes in South Carolina on March 7-9.

The Bass Pro Tour visted Santee o Feb. 20-25 for its Stage Two every fish counts event. Tennessee pro Jacob Wheeler won it with 15 scoreable bass weighing 47-4 in the final round, all using his forward sonar to guide a Rapala Crush City Freeloader he paired with a VMC jighead.

Wheeler has one more than $3.5 million in MLF events, much it coming since 2019 when he joined the BPT. He has seven wins and 29 Top-10 finishes in his first 43 BPT events.

On Feb. 9-11, seven of the Top 10 finishers in the MLF Tackle Warehouse Invitational on Sam Rayburn relied solely on forward sonar to find and catch their fish. Illinois pro Drew Gill scoped his way to 69-06 on 15 bass. He won $80,000.

Tournament crowds aren’t the only ones scoring big results with FFS. The technology has helped gain Oklahoma trophy hunter Josh Jones gain worldwide fame at a fairly young age.

Jones, 36, recently made Facebook post indicating he had just caught his 200th double-digit bass, 199 of them coming in the last four years.

One reader asked how many of those fish were caught not looking at a FFS screen.

Jones’ reply: “One.”

Conroe spits out bigs in The Show

Josh Bensema and Juan Monroe reeled in 49.22 pounds on 10 bass to win the Brandon Belt Fishing “The Show Team Series” event held Feb. 24-25 on Lake Conroe. They banked $50,000.

Four other teams averaged 20 pounds per day. The tournament drew 140 entries at $1,200 per team. The Brandon Belt Grand Slam event is set for March 7-9 on Sam Rayburn. Since 2022, the Grand Slam event has raised more than $214,000 for children’s orphanages and other charitable causes.

The overall grand prize for winning team in the tournament is a 2024 Bass Cat, plus $60,000 cash.

T-Bend, O.H. Ivie crank out Legacy Lunkers

On Feb. 26, Hemphill bass angler Tracy Adair landed a 13.61 Toyota Legacy Lunker on Toledo Bend. It’s T-Bend’s first Legacy Class entry since 2014.

Adair reportedly caught the fish off a main lake point using a jerk bait on 20 pound line.

The lake also produced a 13.67 pounder on Feb. 14 for Louisiana angler Doug Reynolds. Reynolds’ bass and entered Toledo Bend Lake Association big bass program. The fish was weighed, tagged and subsequently released back into the lake.

On Feb. 27, Josh Hiler caught a 13.61 pound Legacy Lunker at Lake O.H. Ivie. It is ‘Ivie’s fifth Legacy Lunker of the 2024 collection season that runs through March 3.